maybe not the finest hour...

the current next menu is a tour of South America. we found it interesting but less than - much less than amazing... maybe our timing was off, they did Peru (the culinary leader of South America first and have moved the tour to Chile (having been to seven South American countries I would put Chile in the bottom half on the cuisine rankings of those I have visited. Not bad just not incredible....

And that is how I would also describe the meal we had last weekend.

here is the menu-

served outside on the street (like it is in South America)

the next was absolute favorite course!

as with every dinner in at next the "decorations" can be eaten or sometimes hold a surprise 

another dish we liked the pastela- which was very good but you can find them just as good in the actual location in South America- and the wine with this course was virtually undrinkable a flawed sauv blanc with a spritz - which the staff tried to tell us was deliberate or maybe the vendor told them that- either way - they should know better...

tuna croquettes followed by the tomato salad-

a beautiful presentation but not overwhelmed by the combination of elements - seemed like it should have had more flavor...

so the end of a rather mediocre (for the price) meal - quite the disappointment but there is always another meal- and so later this week and next we are off to our two very favorite Michelin starred restaurants 42 grams and goosefoot... so please don't feel sorry for us - the meal was interesting but as I mentioned above in one place - the food in South America is just as good and more authentic - this to me had a Disney-esque kind of quality (a "representation" of the real thing but not the real thing and I so wished they had incorporated all of their featured countries into the BEST OF kind of meal - then we could have had the best of Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile - meanwhile I had some amazing food in Colombia and some interesting food in Bolivia which could have also made the cut.  

here I am in Bogota making Obleas- LOL but only under the supervision of an expert- this was much harder than it looked LOL

and here are a few photos of a meal from Argentina with CBGB - 

LOL- but of course no one ever consults me on these things- LOL - so on to the next post - our trip to Michigan to see/hear Jackson Browne in concert (a HUGE winner!) and then a play at Steppenwolf and some holiday plans and then back to Canada photos and blog posts (I haven't forgotten)- back later....

home again

and quickly back into the swing of things.  sometimes it seems that the minute vacation is over it feels like you never had it in the first place.  luckily we have lots of photos to remember it by so it wasn't all a dream like in Total Recall- a super movie if you haven't seen it...

so just a few pictures that haven't made it yet into the blog and some captions to help remember days months or years later -

here are some photos of our tour of La Boca

a bum sleeping in pretty fancy digs  

 school kids on field trip - it was nearing the summer vacation

wall art from the quarter 

fake drinks to show what is on offer at the cafe

from the San Telmo area- a few mouth watering shots from a pasta shop

house made corkscrew pasta - foot long! 

empanadas

from Recoleta a photo from a mausoleum - their limit for above ground coffins is two but the guide said some have put more in their above ground part - here the glass door gave proof to the rule following of one family

after the cemetery tour we had a fabulous lunch at an outdoor cafe and here were two of the starters

 caprese salad

tuna tartare with mango

and from our day in Colonia del Sacramento two photos from El Drugstore (an eatery in town across form the church)

diners enjoying the afternoon 

the "dining car" for special occasions

so now it is time to go back to work and move on from the vacation mentality-